Five Themes of Geography Part 1

For my final project, I chose to discuss Greenland and Iceland. I thought they would be great to explore because as a child I had the hardest time distinguishing between the two. Greenland and Iceland are commonly mixed up because of the irony of their names. As is evident on the maps below, Greenland is mostly covered in ice and Iceland is predominately green. I was also particularly curious to find out what it was like to live in both of these countries. I knew that the living conditions and cultural customs are nothing like I’ve experienced before.

Map of Greenland

Map of Iceland

Location

 One thing that can sometimes make it difficult to distinguish Iceland and Greenland is that they’re neighboring countries located in the Arctic Region. They’re also both islands. Relatively, Greenland is located above and to the east of Canada. As you can see in the above maps, it lies between the North Atlantic Ocean and the Arctic Ocean. Its absolute location coordinates are 71.7069° N, 42.6043° W. Iceland is located directly to the east of Greenland, which you can see in the 1st map above. Iceland is actually the westernmost country that is still apart of Europe. Its location coordinates are 64.9631° N, 19.0208° W.

Place

Some of the most fascinating differences between Iceland and Greenland can be found by researching their physical and cultural features, which is known as the Place theme of geography. Physically, Greenland is a 2,166,086 sq km island. To give you an idea of the size, that’s more than three times the size of Texas. In fact, Greenland is the world’s largest island that isn’t a continent. However, of that area, only 410,449 sq km is free of ice, which means that 1,755,637 sq km is covered in ice.  When you hear about the country’s climate, it begins to make sense why the island is 81% ice-capped. Its climate is described as being arctic to subarctic, which means that they have cool summers and even colder winters. Because the weather is so harsh, the land isn’t capable of growing crops. However, Greenland does produce numerous different natural resources like coal, hydropower, zinc, lead, fish, and iron ore. Iceland, on the other hand, is less than a 20^th of the size of Greenland. Its area is only 103,000 sq km. I find it interesting that despite Iceland being a fraction of the size of Greenland; its population of 317,351 people is over 5 times the size of Greenland’s. Greenland only has a population of 57,728 people, over a quarter of which live in the capital city Nuuk. The rest of the population is spread among other coastal settlements. 

                                                                                                     

Nuuk, Greenland

This population difference is largely due to the climate difference. Because of the North Atlantic current, Iceland has a more temperate climate. Their winters are still chilly and can be windy, but they are definitely milder than the ones in Greenland.  Iceland is known for it’s beautiful glaciers, mountains, waterfalls, hot springs, and active volcanoes. Iceland's largest glacier, Vatnajökull, is also one of Europe's largest ice-caps. It's roughly 8200 sq km, which is a little less than the size of Puerto Rico. In fact, Vatnajökull National Park covers about 13% of Iceland's land mass. 

            

Vatnajokull Glacier in Iceland 

Culturally, Greenland is heavily influenced by the Inuit ethnic group, which makes of 89% of the population. They speak primarily Greenlandic and Danish. 84.7% of the population is urbanized, but the country boasts a 100% literacy rate. Much of the population has traditional Inuit spiritual beliefs, but Evangelical Lutheran is also practiced. Over 75% of Iceland also identify as members of the Evangelical Lutheran church. 98.7% of Iceland is part of the urban 

population.

Human Environment Interaction

 The environment of Greenland can be harsh and extreme for some, but Greenlanders have found ways to adapt and thrive in such conditions.

They’ve adapted to their icy surroundings and non-arable soil by learning how to fish. Most Greenlanders

Movement

 As we’ve already discussed, Greenland is primarily covered in ice and the rest of the terrain is quite rugged. Unfortunately, this can make transportation a little difficult. The only roads that exist are located within settlements; there are no roads that go between the towns. In fact, there are only 150 km (90 miles) of roads in the entire country, less than half of which are actually paved. During summer months, you can travel to different settlements by taking a boat around the coast. In winter months, sled dogs and snowmobiles are a very common form of transportation.

Region

Sources:

"The World Factbook: GREENLAND." Central Intelligence Agency. Central Intelligence Agency. Web. 05 Oct. 2016.

"The World Factbook: ICELAND." Central Intelligence Agency. Central Intelligence Agency, n.d. Web. 05 Oct. 2016.

"Greenland vs. Iceland." - Country Comparison. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Oct. 2016.

Evans, Andrew. "Is Iceland Really Green and Greenland Really Icy?" National Geographic. National Geographic Society, 30 June 2016. Web. 05 Oct. 2016.

"Aerial View, Nuuk, Greenland Photo." Aerial View, Nuuk, Greenland Photo. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Nov. 2016.

"Vatnajökull National Park." Visit Iceland. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Nov. 2016.

"Greenland." Greenland - New World Encyclopedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Nov. 2016.

"Iceland On The Web." Vatnajokull - Iceland On The Web. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Nov. 2016.